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Tribunal of Ages
The Tribunal of Ages encounter consists of protecting dwarf explorer Brann Bronzebeard from waves of mobs. It is unusual in that it is a boss encounter in difficulty and in loot, but does not involve fighting a boss per se. Rather, you must only survive and protect Brann from the waves. Successfully completing this event grants access to the Tribunal Chest. Encounter The encounter takes place in a circular room (called the Tribunal of Ages, hence the article title) at the end of Halls of Stone wing of Ulduar. Prior to the room there are three stone golems that Brann must be escorted through, but they are not really significant by comparison to standard trash. Brann will stop and allow you to rest after clearing this trash, talk to him again to begin the event. As soon as Brann enters the room, one of the three faces on the wall (Abedneum, Kadrak or Marnak) will activate. This face will shoot a bolt for roughly 500 Arcane damage at a random party member every ~ 3 sec for the remainder of the fight. The first waves come slowly, with each group appearing roughly 45 seconds after the last. Groups consist of three elites, two melee and one caster (3 Melee on heroic). Mobs will go directly to Brann if not picked up. Brann don't have so much health, so they must be tanked. After several waves, Brann will yell and the second face will activate. This face fires a bolt at the ground where one person is standing (similar to Void Reaver and his orbs). Any player hit by this will be afflicted by a debuff which increases damage taken by 50% for a short time. Waves will begin coming faster now, about every 30 seconds, and two nonelite casters are added to every second wave. After another two minutes or so, Brann will yell once again, and the third and final face will activate. The third face fires a channeled beam at a location on the floor that deals 500 damage per second to anyone within 10 yards of it. The damage will be ramping up at this point, so avoiding beams by moving out of them is paramount. Mobs will be coming at an increasing pace, ramping up to roughly every 15 seconds by the end of the event. At this point, killing the mobs is not a priority so much as survival — proper use of CC and various AOE stuns (i.e. Shadowfury, Hungering Cold, etc) can save lives. Survive for another 3 minutes and Brann will yell last time, causing faces to turn on mobs, destroying them quickly. A chest containing the event's loot will then appear in the center of the room. Strategy Positioning The positioning of the group can make a big difference in this fight. There are generally two strategies: On the Stair With a skilled and geared AoE tank (paladin or death knight), this method can reduce damage taken from the beam and bolt. Have the whole group stand on the stair, with the tank in the front. The tank need to grab the aggro of all incoming mobs. DPS then AoE down the mobs quickly. Note that sometimes the beam can still hit people standing on the stair, so everyone still need to stay alert. In the Room If the tank has difficulty AoE tanking, the group may find this method easier. The tank stand close to the bottom of the stair. Other group members scatter in the room. This way the tank will have more time to get the aggro of incoming mobs. DPS should try to focus fire on tank's target to avoid drawing aggro. With this method the group can handle the mobs much more easily. However, everyone will need to move away from the beam and bolt constantly. Tips for Damage Dealers For groups with very good dps and AoE, it is possible to burn down most of the mobs so that the tank only need to take care of a few mobs throughout the fight. For groups with lower dps, it is still possible to clear the first few waves before the next waves emerge. However, as new mobs emerge faster and faster, more and more mobs will remain when the next waves come. This does not mean low dps group cannot handle this encounter. At the later part of the encounter, the tank should try to hold aggro of as many mobs as he/she can. Healer should focus on healing the tank. At this point, the DPS should use all the available crowd control and snaring abilities to CC/kite any free mobs. (Hunters' Frost Trap and shamans' Earthbind Totem are very helpful here!) As long as the group can keep the mobs tanked/CC'ed/kited, Brann will be unharmed and the defend system of the room will kill all the mobs at the end. Loot Quotes *''Brann Bronzebeard says: Take a moment and relish this with me! Soon all will be revealed! Okay then, let’s do this!'' *''Abedneum: Critical threat index. Void analysis diverted. Initiating sanitization protocol.'' *''Kadrak says : Security breach in progress. Analysis of historical archives transferred to lower priority queue. Countermeasures engaged.'' *''Marnak says: Threat index threshold exceeded. Celestial archive aborted. Security level heightened.'' *''Abedneum says: Warning! Life form pattern not recognized. Archival processing terminated. Continued interference will result in targeted response. Alert! Security fail safes deactivated. Beginning memory purge… System online. Life form pattern recognized. Welcome Branbronzan. Query?'' *''Brann Bronzebeard says: Query? What do you think I’m here for? Tea and biscuits? Spill the beans already! Tell me how that dwarfs came to be! And start at the beginning!'' *''Abedneum says: Accessing prehistoric data. Retrieved. In the beginning Earthen were created to-'' *''Brann Bronzebeard says: Right, right! I know that the Earthen were made of stone to shape the deep reaches of the world but what about the anomalies? Matrix non-stabilizing and whatnot.'' *''Abedneum says: Accessing. In the early stages of its development cycle Azeroth suffered infection by parasitic, necrophotic symbiotes.'' *''Brann Bronzebeard says: Necro-what? Speak bloody common will ya?'' *''Abedneum says: Designation: Old Gods. Old Gods rendered all systems, including Earthen defenseless in order to facilitate assimilation. This matrix destabilization has been termed the Curse of Flesh. Effects of destabilization increased over time.'' *''Brann Bronzebeard says: Old Gods eh? So they zapped the Earthen with this Curse of Flesh. And then what?'' *''Kadrak says: Accessing. Creators arrived to extirpate symbiotic infection. Assessment revealed that Old God infestation had grown malignant. Excising parasites would result in loss of host.'' *''Brann Bronzebeard says: If they killed the Old Gods Azeroth would have been destroyed.'' *''Kadrak says: Correct. Creators neutralized parasitic threat and contained it within the host. Forge of Wills and other systems were instituted to create new Earthen. Safeguards were implemented and protectors were appointed.'' *''Brann Bronzebeard says: What protectors?'' *''Kadrak says: Designations: Aesir and Vanir or in common nomenclator Storm and Earth Giants. Sentinel Loken designated supreme. Dragon Aspects appointed to monitor evolution of Azeroth.'' *''Brann Bronzebeard says: Aesir and Vanir. Okay. So the Forge of Wills started to make new Earthen. But what happened to the old ones?'' *''Marnak says: Additional background is relevant to your query. Following global combat between-'' *''Brann Bronzebeard says: Hold everything! The Aesir and Vanir went to war? Why?'' *''Marnak says: Unknown. Data suggests that impetus for global combat originated with prime designate Loken who neutralized all remaining Aesir and Vanir affecting termination of conflict. Prime designate Loken then initiated stasis of several seed races including Earthen, Giant and Vrykul at designated holding facilities.'' *''Brann Bronzebeard: This Loken sounds like a nasty character. Glad we don’t have to worry about the likes of him anymore. So if I’m understanding you lads the original Earthen eventually woke up from this statis. And by that time this destabily-whatever had turned them into our brother dwarfs. Or at least dwarf ancestors. Hm?'' *''Marnak says: Essentially that is correct.'' *''Brann Bronzebeard says: Well now. That’s a lot to digest. I’m gonna need some time to take all of this in. Thank you!'' *''Abedneum says: Acknowledged Branbronzan. Session terminated.'' http://www.worldofraids.com/news/263.html Note: Kadrak, Marnak, and Abedneum are references to the biblical characters: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the Book of Daniel. Note: As of this writing (Patch 3.0.3), the Tribunal addresses him as "Branbronzan". No reason is given. Speculation "Necrophotic" "Necrophotic" is not a real English word, but it would mean "death light" or "dead light", with "photo" from the same greek as "necro". This may be a homage to Stephen King's It, and his other novels, where the antagonist was an otherworldly horror called simply "It", with a body composed of "deadlights", the viewing of which would turn any man insane.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_(novel) (It is a famous novel, and draws from the same tradition of Lovecraftian horror as the Old Gods, so such a homage wouldn't be pure coincidence.) Alternately, "necrophotic" could suggest a relation between the Old Gods and the Holy Light of the Warcraft universe. It may also be related to Shadow energy or magic, which the Old Gods appear to represent on some levels. References External links Category:Bosses Category:Halls of Stone mobs